


Difficulty Level: Moderate

by Erika (Aeiouna)



Category: Backstreet Boys
Genre: M/M, Remixed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-20
Updated: 2009-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-06 00:11:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeiouna/pseuds/Erika





	Difficulty Level: Moderate

AJ was difficult.

Brian was trying but AJ was difficult. All Brian wanted to do was be AJ's friend. It had been Kevin's idea, since Nick, AJ, and Brian were the three youngest. Nick had been easy. They bonded over basketball and video games. They seemed to just... click. He didn't have that luxury with AJ apparently. He tried to do stuff with AJ but AJ always shrugged it off and that was that. He went to hang out with Howie and Brian went to hang out with Nick.

Brian did what he thought was the best idea, or rather, the last ditch effort to make this work. He went to Kevin. He picked a night they were sharing a room so he could be as unobtrusive as possible. "Kev?"

Kevin rolled over in his bed to face Brian. "Yeah cuz? What's up?" He stretched slightly, he _had_ been nearly asleep when Brian said his name.

"I need help," Brian rolled to face the ceiling. "I don't get why AJ is so incredibly hard to befriend. I mean, Howie managed to do it fairly quickly and successfully."

"Howie has also known AJ for far longer than both of us. You have no idea how long it took Howie to get as close to AJ as he is. Why don't you try to get some tips on getting into AJ's head from Howie?"

Brian turned his head to look over at his cousin. "_Right._ How do you think that will look?" Before Kevin even got a chance to answer, Brian continued. "It would look like I want him. And, yeah no not really."

Kevin laughed. "Where in the world would you get that idea Brian? Howie knows you're not out to get with AJ. Just ask him what AJ's into. Why don't you go do it right now? So I can, I don't know, sleep instead of lay here talking to you."

Brian sighed and got off his bed. "If Howie gets any wrong ideas, I'm blaming you. Okay?"

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Okay?" Kevin had no idea why Brian would even bring that up, unless he was trying to hide something, but that couldn’t be it either. Brian told Kevin everything.

Brian grabbed his room key and headed to the room Howie and Nick were sharing. He knocked on the door, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he waited for either Howie or Nick, hopefully Howie, answered the door.

Of course, Nick was the one who did the honors. "Frick!! Hey man what's up?" he grinned and shook his hair out of his eyes.

"Um, Howie here?" Brian asked quietly and then quickly added once he saw Nick's crestfallen face, "I just want to talk to him for a few minutes. Then we can hang out. I need to redeem myself on the court, of course!"

Nick's eye lit up and he let Brian into the room. “Yeah, D's here,” he pointed to the other bed where Howie was reading a book.

Howie looked up. “Oh hey Brian, didn't even hear you come in. What's up?”

“AJ is being totally difficult, and no matter what I do, he just refuses to be my friend. He just laughs me off or something like that!”

“Why don't you try just talking to him? Alone. So he has no choice but to listen to you. You always try when the rest of us are around, and then he goes off with me, and you go off with Nick,” Howie shrugged.

Brian nodded and knew Howie was right. "Thanks man, I hope." he said before leaving and heading next door to AJ's room. He knocked on the door and shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he waited for the younger boy to answer.

AJ looked up from his magazine when he heard the door bit had no intention to answer it. He was busy and it was probably Howie. He went right back to reading.

Brian pouted and tried again, this time a little bit harder assuming that AJ had headphones on and didn't hear him. Again, he waited nervously. Man, AJ sure was being difficult.

AJ finally got up out of bed and got the door. “What do you want How... oh Brian. Um... what the hell do you want?”

Brian let himself into AJ's room before AJ could shut the door and lock him out. "Look, we need to talk. I have been trying and trying to be your friend, cause we could be in this for the long haul and you're just being incredibly difficult. What more do you want from me?"

AJ didn't know how to answer that, because the answer would scare Brian away despite all his attempts. The truth was that AJ was not only questioning his sexuality (a difficult thing for him to deal with on it's own), but Brian was the reason for all that. He was becoming more and more attracted to Brian, and he was distancing himself from the older man for his own good. "Look, Brian. There's nothing more you can do. You're not the problem, I am. I've got shit to deal with on my own. A lot of shit."

Brian sat down on AJ's bed and patted the seat next to him. "Wanna talk about it? I'm all ears man."

AJ reluctantly settled on the bed next to Brian and picked at the mattress. How was he gonna do this? How was he gonna tell Brian his problems without giving everything away. He closed his eyes, then opened them. “There's this guy,” he shrugged, “And lately I've been finding him hot. Like, really hot. And it's totally confusing because fuck, Bri... I'm a dude. I'm not supposed to be wanting to bang other dudes, you know?”

“Why do you say you're not supposed to want to 'bang other dudes'?” Brian asked, using his fingers as quotation marks when he repeated AJ's words, “There's nothing wrong with it. I... I get that way sometimes.”

AJ did a double take and stared at Brian wide eyed. “Whoa... Lemme guess, Nicky boy?” he wouldn't have been surprised. Those two are like peanut butter and jelly, or cookies and milk.

“Sometimes, but not always. There's another guy on my mind sometimes. But, he won't let me in so I guess he doesn't want me around. He's a difficult kid to deal with, but I keep trying because I just know we could be something great. Call me a helpless romantic, but I just do, if he'd give me a chance.”

“So do I know this kid?” AJ asked casually.

Brian nodded. “You know him very well, and you already know it's not Nick.”

“And it's obviously not Kevin... besides you wouldn't call him a kid. Howie? No... no Howie's, like, the most easygoing person ever.” he then realized what was going on and blinked a few times. “Me?”

“That a problem?” Brian whispered.

“Not at all,” AJ leaned in closer, “You know, getting through what was going on in my head wasn't that hard at all,” he placed a chaste kiss to Brian's lips, “And you're right... we could totally be something great. I'm game if you are.”

Brian smiled. AJ wasn't as difficult as Brian thought. Just scared and slightly misunderstood.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Not so difficult, after all (The Difficulty Level remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/190493) by [luxshine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxshine/pseuds/luxshine)




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